Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. admitted making a “mistake” in slashing the health program that serves Sept. 11 first responders, but dodged questions about whether he would return it to full staffing.
RFK Jr. told Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) that firing many staffers at the World Trade Center Health Program was an error made as the incoming Trump administration sought to make deep across-the-board cuts to spending.
“It was part of the overall budget cuts that were going to be painful,” Kennedy said at a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday. “Some of them should not have been made and I reversed that one. We made a couple of mistakes.”
Kennedy said he moved to rescind the job cuts and declared the “program will continue.”
Despite the apology, Kennedy dodged Kim’s question about whether the WTC Health Program will return to full staffing.
He also declined to commit to restore funding for the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer, another key resource for first responders who were sickened after serving at Ground Zero following the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“On the list of things in this Congress that we think are bipartisan and unanimous…should be supporting out heroes at the World Trade Center,” Kim said.
“Kennedy had the chance to forthrightly and finally tell the public he supports the 9/11 Workers Health Program and will stop collaborating with President Trump to constantly fire key leaders and program workers. But he refused,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told the News.
The 9/11 health program was hobbled for months by cuts of about 20% of its staff after Trump returned to the White House and even after Kennedy agreed to restore the program in March amid bipartisan outcry.
It also was crippled by the administration’s failure to fully restore the authority of its director, Dr. James Howard, a step that was taken only recently after Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike spoke out again two weeks ago.
9/11 advocates question whether the restoration of the cuts will be permanent.
“This is a national test of whether we truly meant it when we said ‘never forget,’” said Michael Barasch, a lawyer who has represented 9/11 first responders. “Kennedy has the chance to stop the bureaucratic cruelty and make the 9/11 community healthy again.”
Dr. Howard and several staffers were fired in March as part of a wide effort spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to downsize federal spending.
After a flurry of bipartisan outcry, the White House said at the time that it was reversing the staffing cuts and reinstating Howard.
But it didn’t actually take action until early May when a front page Daily News scoop revealed that Howard’s status had been left in limbo, new participants were not being enrolled in the program and treatment plans were not being approved. Three FDNY employees were unable to get treatment plans approved for recent cancer diagnoses.
After the fresh round of criticism, the health program resumed enrollments and treatment approvals. Howard was fully reinstated to his post. The workers have been told they will not be fired after all, at least for now.
The program provides health services to about 137,000 first responders and survivors who suffered injuries and illnesses caused by the toxins that swirled around Ground Zero during 9/11 and the weeks that followed.
About 83,000 have at least one certified 9/11 illness from their exposure during and after the terror attacks on the World Trade Center, as well as the hijacked plane crashes near Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon.
